The departure of one of the key architects on the $378 million Justice Center project has City Council members questioning what is – and what should be – next for the courthouse.

Councilwoman Jeanne Robb said Tuesday that she has asked for a briefing to get up to speed.

“What I want to know is how we move forward to really have the sort of legacy project that we have been shooting for now that Steven Holl is off the job,” she said.

Holl was hired as part of a team to design the $127 million courthouse after an international search for architects. With Holl as its headliner, local architectural firm Klipp signed a $9.6 million deal in May.

But last week Klipp announced that Holl was off the design team, and correspondence with city officials showed concern that Holl was designing a building $34 million over budget. Holl disputes that assertion.

Holl, whose billing rate was $316 an hour, will make about $690,000 for his work on the project. But the Klipp team informed city officials that it will not ask for fees over the agreed contract.

The resulting scramble has officials looking for answers.

“If you have spent that much money on the architect,” Councilman Doug Linkhart wondered, “then is the Klipp group just going to absorb that when they do their own design? It sounds like they are – which might mean we get a big rectangular box.”

Even officials who selected Holl have found themselves questioning their own decisions.

The expansion of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., was budgeted for $80 million when Holl was picked for the design in 1999. But the budget rose to $140 million in 2002, according to The Kansas City Star.

In 2002, Cornell University and Holl mutually agreed to part ways after Holl was hired to design a building for the department of architecture.

And in May, a private client complained to The New York Times Magazine that a Holl project was “twice over budget.”

Robb – who was on Denver’s selection committee – said she “had some concerns in terms of just what I read about Kansas City,” but noted that Holl’s presentation “blew the committee away.”

“It is hard to work with someone like that unless you have a foundation or something,” she said. “It’s not like we can go out and just raise some more money.”

Justice Center project manager James Mejia said staying on budget did come up when the city was picking the architect, but he said “people have been more frank with us now than when we did reference checks.”

Mejia said the selection committee made it clear that “the budget was the budget.”

Mejia said that the courthouse is still on time and on budget, but that the Klipp team is now under a time crunch.

That may not be good enough for residents around the Justice Center campus.

Architect Dennis Humphries, president of the Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association, said neighbors voted to tell the council and Mayor John Hickenlooper that “our desire to have a great building has not changed.”

His group is proposing that a panel of nationally renowned architects be appointed to consult with Klipp. Humphries did not specify who would pay for the panel, but he said “to me, we are not getting a Steven Holl building – should we be paying the same fee?”

Mejia said the budget will not allow rebidding the project or consulting fees.